THE rocketing worldwide price of lead and copper is having an impact on Widnes crime levels.

Inspector Nick Bailey is astounded at the number of crooks stealing lead flashing and copper to sell on the black market.

And although there have been more than 30 incidents reported in the past month - and eight in the past week - Insp Bailey warned culprits the net is closing in.

On Monday, a man admitted eight offences of stealing lead flashing and another person arrested the previous week ad

mitted seven counts. There have been numerous other arrests and more are in the pipeline.

Mr Bailey said: 'You would never think that crime in Widnes could be impacted by the price of lead and copper in China.

'We have made numerous arrests and have charged people with 'theft by finding' in cases where they have not been able to say where they got lead from.

'As well as targeting thieves, we have intelligence to say where it's being sold and we aim to target these premises.

'We'll be working with scrapyards on how to spot stolen gear and are concentrating on thefts of wheelie bins, which they use to store the lead. If people have wheelie bins stolen or see people towing them round the streets, we want to hear about it.

'The offenders are predominantly targeting schools and public buildings. The thefts have amounted to thousands of pounds and schools have to replace the flashing when they've got better things to spend their money on.'